Net to collect macro and micro waste installed on Port de Fontvieille

© Direction de l’Aménagement Urbain/DAU

The Department of Urban Amenities recently fitted a storm overflow on the Port de Fontvieille with a net for collecting macro and micro waste.

The net will trap all solid pollutants from the storm overflow that serves the city sewage network during periods of significant rainfall, before the pollutants reach the sea.

It has multiple sides and a mesh capable of filtering out the smallest particles of waste. “We are primarily talking about plastic, aluminium, cigarette butts and polystyrene fragments,” explains Laurent Tallarida, regional engineer and head of the Sanitation Section at the Department of Urban Amenities. “Ultimately, the results of this filtering will not be hugely impressive in terms of weight, since it is for the most part very small bits of waste. But none of that waste will end up in the natural environment.”

This approach, which is being adopted for the first time in the country, is part of an environmental initiative to reduce waste in the marine environment and help to protect its ecosystem. Plans are in place to gradually equip other sites in the Principality.

Teams from the Sanitation Section will carry out regular maintenance (emptying, replacing and checking the net). The net has been installed in partnership with Pollustock, a French company that specialises in innovative solutions to reduce pollution in the marine environment, and Trasomar Monaco, a Monegasque company that specialises in maritime and underwater construction and in creating maritime structures using geotextiles.